Love and adventure in world premiere of 'Tom Jones'

Playwright Mark Brown never takes the easy way out in retelling classic stories.

From left, Wilmari Myburgh, Matthew Goodrich, Faith Sandberg and Eileen Ward are among the actors in Florida Studio Theatre's world premiere of Mark Brown's stage adaptation of "Tom Jones," based on the Henry Fielding novel. CLIFF ROLES PHOTO/PROVIDED BY FST

His version of Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” for example, uses only three actors playing multiple roles, and his popular “Around the World in 80 Days” features just five actors telling the story made famous in Jules Verne’s novel.

He has been cost-conscious, realizing that most regional theaters prefer small casts.

“The reality today of the economics of theater is you can’t have a big sprawling cast to tell the story. You have to economize,” Brown said.

He’s almost busting the budget with the world premiere of his latest play, “Tom Jones,” a stage version of Henry Fielding’s 1749 novel “A History of Tom Jones, a Foundling,” which opens Friday at Florida Studio.

The production, staged by Mark Shanahan, features nine actors, and one theater actually told him that was too many people.

While audiences may not get the same sense of grandeur and scope that they might see in a film version of the story (like the 1963 movie with Albert Finney), director Mark Shanahan said nothing is really lost on stage.

“I’m not interested in the big version of this,” Shanahan said. “If that’s what you want, you can go to the movies. Mark writes plays about what’s possible in the theater. I’ve been in plays with a million people. It’s fun and great, but the focus here is letting the audience know these are actors and they can do anything and we can be anywhere with the flip of a hat or a door opening.”

The nine actors play about 30 characters. In a particular scene, they <NO1><NO>may change from one to another just by turning around.

Matthew Goodrich, who has worked on Broadway in “Picnic” and “The Nance,” has the title role, a young man of questionable birth who is determined to win over the well-born Sophia, despite the objections and concerns of her family. Faith Sandberg, who appeared at FST in “Perfect Wedding,” plays Sophia.

Mark Brown, best known for his stage version of "Around the World in 80 Days," will see the world premiere of his new play "Tom Jones," based on a Henry Fielding novel, produced by Florida Studio Theatre. COURTESY PHOTO

“They’re great stories, with great through lines, and you’ve just got to take away the excess and get to the heart of it,” he said. “ 'Don Quixote’ was a challenge because the story is so episodic. “It’s almost like a TV series. ‘And this week, Don Quixote and Sancho meet Angela Lansbury’,” he joked.

Shanahan, who has acted in “Around the World in 80 Days” and the similarly styled “The 39 Steps,” said this kind of show requires a “great hero and the adventure you go on with that hero, who is surrounded only by obstacles. And we hope he wins this adventure. We have that with Matt, who can play it without making fun of it. If you can’t root for Tom Jones to find his way through this life, there’s no point.”

Tom Jones is not a perfect hero, and Sophia certainly has her disappointments with him.

“Tom’s largest problem is he’s untethered,” Goodrich said. “No one has claimed ownership of him, so it leaves him to have to claim ownership for everything he does. At the same time, he’s not responsible and has no alliances to anyone.”

The character has given his heart to Sophia, but he’s also naturally blessed and gifted with looks and personality “and with that comes a lot of the trials that he has to navigate to get his reward.”

Sandberg said there was a bit of talk at the first rehearsal about how Tom is his own force of nature and how the idea of love at first sight surprises Sophia.

“He makes me quiver, makes my heart jump out of my chest,” she says of her character’s response to Tom. But she is also conscious of the mistakes he makes, especially in his relations with other women.

“He’s not matching her idea of true love. He’s not meeting those expectations at all, and how do we get through all the other mistakes along the way so we can become the people we were meant to be and come together,” Sandberg says. “She finds her spine to follow her heart and to insist that he find his spine too.”

That’s quite surprising for a woman in an 18th-century novel.

Goodrich said he has read passages of Fielding’s novel that offer some details about Tom’s life. “You can skim til you get to a character’s name and action. Ah, here we go.”

Brown said he read the book three times, but it wasn’t easy. “Sometimes, it was the best sleeping aid. I would get three pages and be sound asleep, like when it gets into political stuff. But when it gets back to the action, it’s lively.”

But it’s not important to have read the novel or really to know anything about it to appreciate the play Shanahan said.

“I think it’s as important to be as familiar with a Marx Brothers movie as the novel,” he said. “When you’re doing a Mark Brown play, you have to understand anarchy. He takes the form of the theater and rips it apart at the seams and rebuilds it. That’s why the rules are set out early. Anything goes here.”

That especially applies to rehearsals, Sandberg said.

Actors are encouraged to “dare to fail huge, take big risks in this room. An actor loves to hear that,” she said.

“It makes me feel I’m in the batter’s box. I see a fastball coming and I take a huge swing. Sometimes I completely miss the ball, but I’ve given it my all. Sometimes I try and whack it out of the park,” Sandberg said. “That willingness to stand at bat and swing huge is the thing.”

Shanahan, who is an actor and director, said there’s an extra thrill putting a show together that has never been done.

“I believe people will be doing Mark’s play way after we do, and we’re in the room trying to help Mark figure it all out the best way possible,” he said. “We’re in the room to support the play and when 8 o’clock comes, it’s all about supporting the actors.”

Brown also is working on a musical version of “Tom Jones,” that has the 18th-century period, but “all the music is ’60s British pop invasion.”

Jay Handelman

Jay Handelman is the theater and television critic for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, where he has worked since 1984. He also is President of the Foundation of the American Theatre Critics Association and a two-time past chairman of the association's executive committee. He can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4931. Follow him at @jayhandelman on Twitter. Make sure to "Like" Arts Sarasota on Facebook for news and reviews of the arts.

Last modified: April 4, 2014
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